The Australian government will help fund a dozen large-scale solar projects worth A$1 billion (US$770 million), as it looks to boost the use of clean power in a coal-rich country, which is one of the world’s biggest carbon emitters per head.
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“But Australia has been lacking in large-scale solar deployment”.
Twelve new large-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) plants are set to be constructed across Australia, tripling the amount of energy produced from big solar.
The call for protecting ARENA’s funding comes as the agency on Thursday announced the winners of its large-scale solar funding round that will support 480 MW of projects. “The projects delivered through the ARENA funding round will build on current expertise and generate new knowledge for the burgeoning large-scale solar sector including co-location of solar and wind”.
With a 107 megawatt generation capacity, the Darling Downs Solar Farm will be the largest plant in the country.
According to ARENA CEO Ivor Frischknecht, the funding is expected to result in nearly $1 billion of commercial investment, benefitting regional Australian economies in the process.
The sunshine state will soon become the solar state, with the looming construction of six projects capable of generating enough energy for 120,000 homes.
The 12 plants are expected to deliver 10 per cent of the new capacity required to meet Australia’s 2020 renewable energy target, while also creating 2,300 direct jobs and “thousands more” indirect jobs.
Mr Thornton said banks were now closely examining the viability of investing more heavily in solar and renewable energy projects in Australia.
“I am proud that the largest solar farm in Australia will now be located on the Darling Downs, and that two of the three largest solar farms will be located in Queensland”, Ms Palaszczuk said.
About AUD 1.3 billion (USD 971m/EUR 883m) of the agency’s grant funding is threatened by the federal government’s budget savings bill.
“Several are seeking debt financing for projects through the Clean Energy Finance Corporation’s complementary large-scale solar program”.
Queensland senator Larissa Waters said the success of Queensland’s solar project applications showed the planned cuts to ARENA’s funding would be felt worst in regional Queensland.
“Since May, Labor has refused to release the final report from the Queensland Productivity Commission on the impacts of their renewable energy target, which begs the question – what do they have to hide?”
“In 2014, the grant funding needed for large-scale solar projects was $1.60 a watt”, Mr Frischknecht said.
Since it was established in 2012, ARENA said its funding for large scale solar projects had dropped significantly from around half of the total of each project’s costs to an average of just 10 per cent, meaning that every Australian dollar from the latest funding round is leveraging $10 from elsewhere.
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Frischknecht said this competitive tender approach could be adopted to speed up the commercialisation of other renewable energy technologies such as battery storage, concentrating solar thermal and bioenergy.
